Secret Trio: Identity Crisis
by Deus Rex Machina
Summary: Six months since the Trio's first meeting, there came Phantom Planet, and with it, the revelation that Danny Fenton is Danny Phantom. But now that Danny's secret is out, the world's a different place, so what happens to the Secret Trio? Or, a better question is; are anyone's secrets safe anymore?
1. Prologue

It had been six months since Danny, Randy and Jake stopped the Ghostlock…but Danny Fenton had just saved the world six hours ago, and his secret was out. Already he had received thousands of messages thanking him for saving the world, social media sites were exploding under the hashtag "Phantom Planet."

But there were two messages that let Danny know just how much things were about to change, and they both said the same thing; "We've got to talk."

Excusing himself from an interview, Danny quickly flew off to New York, the joy of having saved the planet being replaced by the dread of what came next.

Phasing through the New York apartment of Jake Long, he landed in his friend's room and de-morphed with a sigh of relief that no one was hounding him with cameras for once.

"Let's hear it for Danny Phantom, ladies and gentlemen, aka…_Mr. Worldwide_!"

Turning around at the sound of Jake's voice, Danny was greeted with a wave of applause from his friends who had assembled in to meet him.

"Sam, Tucker… Dani?" Danny said as he hugged his friends from Amity Park, "Man you guys got here quick."

"Well you know; flying air dragon is a lot easier than taking the Spector Speeder from a house brimming with paparazzi."

"Yeah, I'm kind of the talk of the town now aren't I?"

"Not just the town," Jake said, pulling up a Chinese newsfeed with Danny's picture, "like we said, you're literally Mr. Worldwide."

"Which is sort of why we called this meeting."

Jake nodded, suddenly turning serious. "Randy's right, now that you're out there, I think… it's time we call off the trio."

The room fell silent at that point, no one wanting to interact in the wake of this serious development.

"So… so just like that we're finished? Phantom's global so the trio just stops?"

"Look, it's not like we're not gonna be friends, we just…" Randy took a long pause, looking at Theresa, "think about it like this: Danny Phantom is Danny Fenton…"

"Danny Phantom hangs out with the Norrisville Ninja and supposedly the Dragon of New York…" Dani cut in.

"Danny Fenton is friends with Randy Cunningham and Jake Long…" Sam continued.

"Randy Cunningham is from the same town as the ninja…."

"And Jake Long lives in the same city as the dragon, which doesn't sound so ridiculous now that we have worldwide proof of ghosts…"

Tucker looked at Danny, waiting for him to make the connection. "Three teenage boys, three mysterious protectors, but how are they connected?"

"And more importantly…why do Phantom, the Ninja, and the Dragon show up at the same time that Danny, Randy, and Jake disappear?"

Danny sat beside Sam on Jake's bed, covering her hand with his.

"You guys though of all of this…and yet you're all terrible, _terrible_ students?"

"Eh, we have our priorities."

The room erupted in laughter, the tension of the moment dissolved by the good natured ribbing.

"So… we're really doing this?"

Randy sighed. "Just until the Phantom hype dies down, and evil then it'll still be hard for us to keep secrets, but Tucker's got some kind of plan for that."

Danny looked at Tuck and raised an eyebrow.

"Hey, you have your thing, I have mine."

"Enough of this 'being sad' though," Haley said, finally speaking up from her beanbag chair in front of the window, "the reason we called you here is that we can't say goodbye to the Secret Trio…"

Dani phased up through the floorboards carrying a giant cake, "Without a little party to celebrate all the good times!"

"Alright! Cake!"

"And," Jake said, throwing open the closet doors, "we've got pizza and sodas, too."

Danny almost teared up. "You guys…I don't know what to say."

"Then allow me." Randy stood behind Danny and Sam on Jake's bed and raised his drink into the air, "Eh-em, a toast! To Danny Phantom!"

"To Jake Long!" Danny yelled out.

"To Randy Cunningham!" Jake roared.

"To the Secret Trio!" Everyone shouted together.

* * *

So busy on Earth in their moment of euphoria, no one bothered looking to the stars that night, and no one thought of what else what out there.

No one thought back on Vlad Plasmius, the man responsible for this entire mess, and so no one was there when, one week later, he began plotting.

"I've lost…" he said as he floated through the cosmic debris field, "beaten by buffoons and…_teenagers_! But I can never go back to Earth, not like this, everyone knows that I'm a ghost."

Closer to the planet now, he thought back on that.

"Everyone knows that I'm a ghost, but they don't know what I can do!" Evil laughter poured from his mouth. "Not yet anyway…"

Speeding towards Earth, Vlad began to piece together his greatest trick ever, determined that if he was going down, so were the Fentons.

As he touched down near his fallout shelter buried in the Canadian wasteland, Vlad laughed at the brilliance of his own plan.

Vlad Plasmius was a menace, but Vlad Master's was still a mastermind. It would take some time, but he'd show them all what it truly meant to be ruled by fear.

He would take everything from them, _everything._

As he entered the facility, he turned on some of the older machines and began his varied machinations.

"Ah, hello Maxwell," Vlad said, looking at a stasis pod on the wall that contained the dragon spawn he'd encountered months ago, "did you miss me?"

The dragon woke with a stir, thrashing around its container with an intense hunger for freedom that Vlad only smiled at.

"If the devil's greatest trick was convincing the world he didn't exist, then mine shall be proving to the people just how many false gods walk among them."


	2. Exposure

On the day of Danny's statue unveiling, he had never been more on top of the world. His parents knew his secret, he was a hero the world over, and most importantly…he had Sam.

"You know," Danny said as he flew Sam over the town, "I never thought that it'd end up like this…"

"Oh I don't know, _you _the big hero, _me_ comfortable in your arms, _Paulina_ far, far away …I think we're both right where we want to be."

Laughing, Danny landed on top of city hall and phased into the mayor's office just as Tucker walked in from delivering his speech.

"Dude, where the heck have you been?" Tucker said, rushing to hug Danny, "The whole town's crazy over you!"

"Yeah, but it still feels weird you know? No more slacking off as Danny Fenton, more of just us hanging out, no more bending the rules, now… I'm just another hero with the world on his shoulders."

"Actually, if you look at the statue the world's in your hand"

"Wow… that seems kind of super-villain-y."

"And leading an army of ghosts to the turn the planet intangible wasn't?"

"…Good Point."

The three of them laughed for a while and were genuinely enjoying the moment of peace. However, that changed when Tucker got an urgent message telling him to turn on the news.

"What is it Tuck?"

"It's a message from my…friends… but it's a special message for an extremely special situation."

"Special?" Sam questioned, "Special, how, exactly?"

Answering her question with a flick of his wrist, Tucker turned on the television in the mayor's office that was always tuned to the World News Network, this time illuminated by a very familiar, very bad face.

"Vlad…"

Turning up the volume, the trio of friends listened intently to what the reporters had to say;

_Breaking news from Canada today as we go live to a shot of a starved Vlad Masters, multi-millionaire who just last week was revealed to be an evil psychopathic ghost calling himself "Vlad Plasmius." However, sources are telling me that this man, although not denying his ghost half, is claiming to have no memory of revealing himself or of even being on the grid the last two months, citing his disappearance a week before "Phantom Planet" even began. More on this later._

Tucker turned off the tv and watched Danny's reaction with a careful curiosity. "So…what do you guys think?"

"I think," Danny said as morphed into Phantom, "that that lunatic has some serious explaining to do. C'mon, we're going a little trip."

Bursting through the doors of city hall, Danny weaved his way through a tsunami of camera flashes and autograph hounds. However while flying over the crowd, he caught a glimpse of two unmistakable faces that led him into the mass of his adoring fans. Quickly making himself invisible to the crowd, he blended in between the two boys who were quite a distance from their home cities.

"What are you two doing here?"

"What? Just because we aren't officially a team anymore means we can't come out and support our friend who saved the world?" Jake said.

"Besides," Randy cut in, "School was closed today and we have tickets from the Mayor of Amity Park himself."

Danny was unsure of whether to thank Tucker or strangle him at the moment, but he was sure he'd decide soon enough. "All right, but you guys need to get out of here as soon as you can, Plasmius is back and if I know him like I think I do, that fruit-loop is up to something seriously twisted."

Taking off once again, Danny left Randy and Jake among the crowd of people assembled at the base of his statue, his only lingering message to them being "_Get to Fenton-Works_."

* * *

"Well," Randy said as he and Jake began the walk from city hall to the Fenton's house, "glad to see that fame hasn't changed him."

"C'mon man, it's not like that. Remember, it was because of Plasmius' meddling that we even got together in the first place…and that's when he was playing safe." Jake paused to get his bearings, it had only been a few weeks since he had been there, but the city seemed so much… different.

"So, what's your point?"

"My point," Jake continued, "Scarf-for-brains, is that who knows what he's capable of now that he has no reason to hold back? He's literally got nothing but time on his hands and an axe to bury after that whole Ghostlock fiasco."

"Jake, come on man, you saw how he looked when they found him in the desert, Vlad's done, dude."

"Oh come now, Randall…"

Randy and Jake turned at the sound of the voice to see a dark figure hovering on the streets behind them, his cape billowing in the wind.

"Haven't you learned by now that you shouldn't believe everything you see on television?"

"Plasmius…"

"Ah, so you've heard of me." Vlad said as he fired a ghost ray into the center of Randy's chest, knocking him unconscious. "But let me just say the rumors of my demise have been _greatly _exaggerated."

Watching as his friend hit the ground unconscious, Jake charged Vlad, summoning his flames in preparation for transformation.

"Dragon U-"

"Now, now," Vlad said, scattering white powder all over Jake, "We'll have none of that 'dragon' business here will we? Had enough of that with that _other_ idiot fire-breather, bless his hearts."

Walking over to where Jake had fallen, Vlad grabbed him by the hair as he struggled against the poisoning effects of the dust. "Although, having Maxwell did allow me to study white cinnabar poisoning in person, and it _is_ a nifty little trick for stopping rapscallions like you."

Dropping him back on the cement, Vlad walked away laughing.

"Isn't it?"

"Wha-wah-what do you want fro-fro-from us?" Jake stammered out.

"I want what everyone wants, Jacob" Vlad said as he slung the boys over his shoulders, "one more chance …"

"And that my dear boys, is exactly what I'm going to get."


	3. Fame

Danny decided that he couldn't just leave Randy and Jake without talking to them a little more. They'd come so far just to see him even though they knew they'd be putting themselves in the spotlight. Deciding to meet them at his home, he changed his course and landed in the ops center above his house, de-morphing before he headed downstairs. Even though he'd exposed himself to the world, he still felt weird being around his parents as Phantom.

"Mom, dad, I'm home!"

"Your parents and sister are out right now," a voice said from the kitchen, "something about talking to the president or the U.N about what to do with Vladdy."

Startled by the unfamiliar voice, Danny morphed and entered a battle stance, prepared for a fight.

"Chill, dude!" Dani said as she closed the refrigerator with an arm full of food, "It's just me!"

"Dani? What are you doing here?"

"Uh, I live here now, remember?"

"Oh yeah," Danny said as he de-morphed and snatched a cookie from his clone, "that's gonna take some getting used to."

Sitting down at the table, Danny waited for the others to get there. After about ten minutes, he began growing impatient.

"Ugh, I don't have time for this! Where the heck are they?"

"They who?"

"Jake and Randy, I ran into them at city hall and told them to come here right before…"

"Let me guess, you flew off in a huff to go check on this whole 'Vlad' situation, right?"

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Danny asked indignantly.

"It means that you might be letting this fame go to head, and if that's true then you think you can do everything yourself, including take on Vlad. "

"When have I ever let anything go to my head?"

"Tucker told me about the time you got rich, and how you used to use your powers to mess with the kids in school. Plus, you're endorsing a candy bar, dude."

"Hey, you leave the Danny-bar out of this!"

Dani shook her head and got up from the table. "All I'm saying is, if it were me in that position, I'd be rolling in the spotlight by now, friends or no friends."

"Yeah well, you're not me."

They both stood in awkward silence over the fact that because Dani was a clone, she was at least a little bit of him. "Okay, yeah, I see what you're saying. Watch out for the fame monster and all that."

"Now you're getting it," Dani said as there was a knock on the front door "besides, Jake and Randy probably just headed home for the night, y'know since the big time hero was so busy."

"I get it, I get it" Danny said, smacking his head against the table, "I got reckless and abandoned my friends. I even blew off Tucker and…Sam! I've gotta call her and apologize for taking off and leaving her with Tuck."

"Good call, Romeo."

Dani reached for the door and began to open it, but was stopped as her and Danny's ghost senses activated. Just then, a vicious gust of wind swept into the house, pinning the two against the living room wall as if it were being directed. Just as they regained their footing, the wind stopped as abruptly as it had started, leaving the house a mess and the two Phantoms disoriented.

"What the heck was that?"

"I dunno," Danny said as he fought to stand up straight, "do you think it was the fame monster… because I was joking about that being a thing."

Brushing himself off, Danny morphed and flew out the door, which had been blown nearly off the hinges, and searched outside for the culprit. "Nobody's out here," he said returning to the house, "which is weird because for the last few days there've been people out there non-stop."

"Someone was out there," Dani said as she picked up a sealed envelope from the debris that had blown in, "and they really wanted you to have this."

"More fan-mail?"

"Not exactly…"

Danny wondered what she meant until he flipped the letter over and saw the initials stamped into the wax; _V.M._

"Plasmius…" Danny said with so much distain that his eyes began glowing green.

Opening the letter, Danny was shocked to see pictures of his family from the U.N conference and Sam and Tucker from within city hall, but he was even more surprised to see a picture of him, Randy and Jake. "What _is_ this?"

"Whatever it is," Dani said, turning up the volume on the tv, "it looks like it's about to get a whole lot worse."

_More info on the Vlad Masters case as we take you live to the Canadian embassy. It seems that Mr. Masters has regained enough health to be released from hospital care so he has been handed over to the United Nations under the watch of Jack and Madeline Fenton._ _Although he technically remains free because no crimes have been committed, the Fenton's will be responsible for making sure that his ghost half remains subdued, much as the case with their son, Daniel and their adoptive daughter Danielle. _

"Oh great, _more_ publicity to go to your head."

_An interesting development though, is that Masters has agreed to address the people of Amity Park as a repercussion of his actions during the events of "Phantom Planet", of which he still claims to have no memory. Vlad will be accompanying the Fentons when they return to Amity Park tonight, with his speech being set for noon tomorrow at city hall. And now… the weather._

Danny turned off the tv as he began pacing back and forth, trying to make heads or tails of what he'd just seen. Vlad was definitely back, and he was sending Danny a message that he was watching his every move. But the thing that was bothering him most of all was the picture of him, Randy and Jake that had been included in the envelope.

"What's your game, Vlad…what are you planning."

* * *

**_Author's Note:_** Okay, I know this chapter was a little Danny/Dani heavy, but don't worry, the trios' are not about to become all about the Phantoms, Jake and Randy will be getting some spotlight in the next few chapters (the last of which will really flesh out the whole "Identity Crisis" thing). Oh, and also, there are an ass-load of characters coming into play over the next arc, and if accidentally overdo it feel free to call me out on it (after the end of course, I do have _some _idea where this clusterf**k is going).


	4. Smoke and Mirror

Jake Long woke up groggy and confused, so it was quite surprising when he found out he'd been chained to the ceiling at some point. Fighting the lingering effects of the white cinnabar powder he'd encountered earlier, he struggled to form a coherent thought.

"Gotta…get Jake," he said as sweat cascaded down his battered face, "no…me Jake, so who…save?"

_Focus, Long. Need to get out of here, stop…_

"Plasmius!" Jake yelled out the name and used it as a mental stepladder to recount the events leading to where he was now. He remembered being in Amity Park with Randy for Danny's statue unveiling…and then he remembered that jerk blowing them off.

"Randy," Jake said as he attempted to summon enough fire that would melt the chains binding him, "gotta find Randy."

However, no fire came out, no matter how hard he struggled. "What the?" Jake looked at his surroundings to see what was preventing his dragon abilities from working, noticing nothing out of the ordinary…until he looked at his wrists.

"Oh, son of a-" Jake said, finally noticing the familiar sting that had numbed his hands, "they make handcuffs out of this stuff too?!" Looking for a weakness in them, Jake saw that the chains holding the cinnabar together were made of witch iron, which he remembered his Grandfather telling him could strengthen the magical properties of anything inorganic.

"Hating this," he screamed, "hating this soooo freaking much."

After what seemed like several hours, Jake was about to bash his head into the wall out of sheer frustration. Luckily for him, he heard a faint noise coming from the adjacent room that stopped him.

"Randy?"

"Jake!" Randy replied, obviously struggling as well, "Where the juice are we?"

Ignoring his friend's horrible slang, Jake let out a sigh of relief. "Dude, I don't even know, the last thing I remember is Vlad Plasmius knocking us unconscious."

"Yeah…" Randy said with dawning realization, "wait a minute, that jerk shot me in the chest! He could have killed me!"

"I don't think he wants us dead, but yeah, he's still not a good guy to be around. We need to get out of here ASAP, do you have your mask with you?"

"No, I got nothing; think you can bust us out with that dragon strength of yours?"

Jake shook his head before he remembered that Randy couldn't see him. "Magical off switch dude, I can't dragon up as long as this much white cinnabar is touching me."

"Why does everyone have a weakness to rocks," Randy yelled, exasperated, "geez it's like you're all determined to have the most random things be used against you. Danny with his ectoranium I can understand, but what the juice does cinnabar have to do with dragons?!"

"Well Mr. I'm-apparently-a-cranky-kidnap-victim, cinnabar comes from a root word that means 'dragon blood' for a reason. Natural cinnabar pulls the dragon out, but when it's white, it's basically a giant stop sign for dragon powers."

"Have I mentioned how much I hate your and Danny's powers?"

"Only several times."

Despite the harsh conditions, the two boys shared a laugh as they thought back on memories of their time as a trio with Danny.

"Okay," Randy said, sobering up from laughter, "so how are we gonna get out of here, cause I gotta tell you staying here with Plasmius does _not_ seem like a lot of fun."

"Any chance your hands small enough to slip the cuffs at the right angle?"

Doubtfully, Randy attempted to wriggle his way out of confinement, but it proved useless. "Nope on that one."

"I don't suppose you have a lock-pick with you either?"

"No dice, can't just use your claws to the open the cuffs?"

Jake rolled his eyes and mocked Randy's question. "Gee Randy, I hadn't thought of that, it's almost like my powers aren't working or something."

"…Someone had a bowl of Sassy-O's this morning didn't he?"

"Look, the only other way I could think to get out would be trying breaking my wrists like they do in the movies…but that's really not something I want to do."

"Dude, at this point broken wrists sound way better than being stuck here with Vlad so he can do who knows what with us."

"Okay," Jake said, swinging his legs as he dangled from the ceiling, "so break out, ninja up, and then bust me out, chop-chop."

"Oh no bro, I need my wrist, what use is a ninja without his wrists? Besides, my bag is on the other side of the room so it's up to you."

After a brief moment of silence, Jake sighed. "I hate Amity Park," he said as he began adjusting his arm so that he could get this done in one shot, "I hate whoever invented these cuffs and I hate Plasmius. The only good thing about this city is Nasty Burger."

Jake took in a large breath, and with one violent motion, his twisted his body around, snapping his wrists hard enough for Randy to hear from the other room.

"Ugh," Randy said, gagging from the sound of bones cracking, "that's seriously schnasty."

To his credit, Jake managed not to scream too loudly as his wrists slid out of their confinement. Dropping to the ground with a heavy thud, he stood up and gathered his breath before going to get Randy. Testing out his flames once he got far enough away from the white cinnabar, he discovered that although his hands still went numb if he tried to transform, his fire breath was still effective enough to weaken the chains.

Running to the next room, he wasted no time warning Randy before he exhaled a stream of fire at the chains holding him in place, burning not only the links but some hair off of Randy's arms. Landing on his feet, Randy rushed to grab his mask and then followed Jake as he made his way out.

"Thanks for that," Randy huffed, trying to catch up with Jake, "but a little warning would have been nice."

"You know what else would've been nice, not having to break my freaking hands! Now shut up and run!"

The boys ran towards a large staircase that led up to a place where morning light was pouring down from and decided to risk it. Surfacing into what appeared to be a ruined mansion, Jake and Randy carefully looked around for any land markers that could tell them where they were. "Okay, look around for anything that could tell us where we are or give us any idea of what Plasmius was planning here and then we'll bail, deal?"

Randy nodded as he began rummaging through the ruins. After five minutes, they had discovered broken vials that appeared to have once contained ectoplasm and shards of glass covered in bloody fingerprints.

"I got nothing in this junk," Randy said, pulling out more broken pieces, "you?"

"Same, except for some old notes about Dani and Danny...which by the way, _seriously_ creepy on Vlad's account."

"Totally, that dude is one seriously crazed up fruit-loop."

"Ow," Jake cursed as he could no longer ignore his wrists throbbing from the pain of his escape, "hey, wait a minute! Don't you have some sort of 'ninja art of healing' or anything helpful in that bag of yours? "

"Oh yeah," Randy said, vaguely recalling a section in the Nomicon about healing abilities, "I guess I do. Uh, I could try, but you should know by now these things have a habit of backfiring on me."

"Broken. Wrists. Not _wrist, _singular_..._but_** wrists,**_ as in plural." Jake held up his hand to show Randy the purple and red bruising encompassing each wrist. "Believe me when I say that there is nothing you can do to make this worse for me."

"Alright, don't say I didn't warn you though."


	5. Anarachism

As Jake sat down on a large chunk of rubble, Randy opened the Ninja-Nomicon and entered his ninja trance. Twenty seconds later, he snapped back into his body, shaking his head at the dizzying experience.

"Y'know Randy, that always looks so _fun._" Jake said sarcastically.

"Ha-ha," Randy said as he rolled his eyes and closed the nomicon, stuffing it back in his bag, "hey, how's that wrist of yours doing" Making a thumping motion near Jake's wrist, Randy pulled back when he saw that Jake's eyes had gone reptilian. "Okay then, healing first, mocking you later."

"Smart man."

Putting on the ninja mask, Randy drew in a deep breath and then held out his hands over Jake's shattered wrists. "Man I really hope your arms don't blow up or something…" he mumbled.

"Wait, what?!"

"NINJA APOLLONISIAN NINJUSTSU, STANDBYE!"

Jake and Randy cringed as a flash of black energy surged from Randy's palms, manipulating the structure of Jake's hands and wrists. When it seemed to be over Randy backed away, feeling exhausted from the effort of using that much energy. "Well," he said, sweaty from lack of breath "did it work?"

Jake held up his arms to examine them, so far just relieved that he hadn't had his them blown off. Looking further down, he noticed that the swelling in his wrists had gone down completely and he had no sign of bruising. In fact, everything looked and felt one-hundred percent fine… if you ignored the two thick lines of red scales circumnavigating his wrists in the exact spot where the cuffs had been.

"Well, on the bright-side… you didn't blow up."

"True," Jake said, feeling the gradient of his skin from flesh to scale, "but how long is this supposed to last?"

"Don't know, but hey, look what I found." Randy held up his cell phone and went through the messages.

"What exactly am I looking at?"

"The time, genius, look what time it is now, we've been down there for a good twelve hours, but if you look at the messages, someone sent messages to my parents, Howard and Theresa while we we're chained up."

Jake pulled his phone from his coat pocket and examined the time log for his messages. Randy was right, last night someone had sent messages to his parents and Rose that he was staying the night in Amity Park with Danny, and he had a good idea of who. "So Plasmius is playing telephone now?"

"I guess, but it was way too easy for us to get out of there."

Jake shot Randy a dirty look and held up his hands, tracing the outline of the scale pattern.

"Oh yeah that…well you know what I mean."

Nodding, Jake looked to the sky as the sun started going higher. "Hey Randy, what time is it?"

"Almost ten…and it's Saturday too, oh man I'm missing cartoons!"

"Dude, seriously?"

"Right, sorry. But why does it matter what time it is?"

"Check the last message in your phone."

Randy looked at the message, an earlier update from the World News Network explaining that they were only a few hours away from live coverage of Vlad Masters' speech from Amity Park at noon.

"Oh…that's not good"

Summoning his flames for transformation, Jake morphed into his dragon form and spread his wings over the rubble, relishing the moment of freedom it brought him. However, in the weeks since Randy had seen him, dragon-Jake had gotten slightly larger, his frame more muscular and intimidating than he'd remembered. "Exactly, we need to get there and help Danny. He may think he's unstoppable but he's still…"

"A total shoob?"

"I was gonna go with 'our friend' but that works too, hop on if you're coming."

Randy hesitated at the thought of going up against Vlad again, but soon resigned his fears on the matter. Pulling on the ninja mask over his face, he hopped onto Jake's back, using his scarf as a makeshift seatbelt. "Alright I'm on…tally-ho!"

"Again I ask, seriously?"

"You just can't let me enjoy the moment can you?"

* * *

Arriving in Amity Park an hour later, the boys rushed towards Fenton Works in hopes of warning Danny that Vlad was back in town. Viciously knocking on the door, Jake and Randy almost fell completely over when Danny pulled open the door mid-knock.

"Guys," Danny said as his friends tried to compose themselves, "I thought you went home yesterday?"

"We need to get to city hall," Jake said, out of breath from flying such a long distance, "...fast."

"What, why?"

"Vlad," Randy said, "Vlad's back again."

"Yeah, I know" Danny said, inviting them to sit down, "my parents are on their way with him to the speech."

"What?! How long has he been here?"

"Since yesterday, they went and got him from the embassy and then he stayed here while we kept watch over him."

Jake and Randy looked at each other nervously.

"He never left your sight?"

"No, we made sure nothing happened, he's been in a ghost shielded room since yesterday…why?"

Jake held up his wrists to Danny, exposing the raw bands of dragon scales that circled each of them. "Because someone wanted us out of the picture for today…bad"

"What the heck happened to yo-" realization dawned on Danny like lightning, "you two never went home last night, did you?"

Jake and Randy shook their heads, oblivious to Dani, Sam, and Tucker on the stairs now intently watching the trio.

"Woah," Dani said noticing Randy's torn shirt, "what happened to you two?"

"Plasmius…" Jake said, matching the uncertainty and confusion in Randy and Danny's eyes.

"We think…" Randy finished for him.

Just then, the door to the house exploded in, pinning Sam and Tucker under the broken frame, and disorienting the others enough that they temporarily couldn't tell what was happening. However, that was all the time needed for Vlad Plasmius to saunter in amongst the confusion, looking at the flustered heroes with the same kind of amusement snakes look to mice with.

"Hello little badgers," he said as he grabbed Dani and Danny by the throats and slung them across the room, "you know, normally I don't make house calls… but I believe someone rang for me."


	6. Revelation

Vlad had just gotten the last of the heroes tied up when he Danny regained consciousness from being slung against the wall. Thankfully though, no one appeared to be hurt too bad.

"Alright Plasmius," Danny said, struggling against the restraints placed on him, "what's your deal?"

"My 'deal' is this, remain silent or I launch your idiot friends into Pariah Dark's kingdom. Now hold still."

Noticing something darker about Plasmius, Danny did what he was instructed to do as Vlad carried him and his friends outside and into a limo waiting on the street.

"You know you won't get away with this, right fruit-loop?"

"That's the beauty of this plan, Daniel," Vlad said, carelessly tossing the bundle of teenagers into the vehicle, "I already have." Silenced by the slam of the vehicle door, Danny, Jake, Randy, and Dani all sat in an awkward state of defeat.

"Ok, what the heck was that?" Sam asked as the limo began moving, "I mean I know he'd lost it before the whole 'Phantom Planet' thing…but this is a whole new level of nuts, even for Vlad."

"Yeah and what is this stuff? Smells like…" Tucker sniffed the ropes, gagging a little at the familiar smell. It was faint, but apparently enough to shut down the Fenton's ghost powers. "Blood Blossoms? Aww not this stuff again."

"Not digging this rope too much either," Jake said, noticing the specks of alabaster material inlaid in the deep red ropes, "so Danny must have done something seriously messed up to set him off this bad." Unable to access his dragon abilities, it became obvious that he, along with the others, were along for the whole ride

"Hey! How is any of this my fault?"

Dani thought back for a second. "Phantom Planet? You blew up his satellite? He outed himself as a megalomaniac while you kind of got to be ghost Jesus?" She paused, exhausted from the simple act of being near blood blossoms, "I'm guessing this is his way of getting you back…_hard_."

"Oh great," Randy said, finally speaking up, "so this is Canada all over again; Danny does something stupid and then we all end up captive to a madman? The only difference is that now we're all powerless and detention would be great if it were the only thing coming out of this."

The limousine stopped just as the six friends erupted in nervous laughter at their situation.

"Man," Danny said, ignoring the pain inducing blood blossom rope, "I've missed you guys."

"Same here, we should all hang out more," Randy laughed, "haha…assuming we live through this."

For some reason, that made the rest of the group laugh even harder. Their laughter was so much in fact, that when the doors to the limo finally opened, they were temporarily met with a confused look on Vlad Plamius' smug little face.

Shaking off his confusion, Plasmius placed each of the children in neutralizing cuffs and put bags over their head, leading them through a door behind city hall.

"You know Daniel, I really must thank you for all of this, if it weren't for the last year of humiliation and loss at your hands, I honestly don't think I'd have the drive to do this."

Danny groaned. "Dude, seriously, you couldn't have just gotten a camel or like a panda and just retired?"

"Oh, believe me" Vlad said, opening the door to the mayor's office and removing the bags from the group's faces, "…this is going to be a lot more fun."

As they opened their eyes, Danny, Jake, Randy and the others were greeted by a massive crowd full of surprised whispers and flashing camera light. However, what surprised them most of all was the fact that there were two Vlad's there; Vlad Masters at the podium, watching them intensely, and Vlad Plasmius standing beside them, smiling maliciously.

"What the f-"

Jake was cut off by the sound of Vlad Masters clearing his throat, preparing to address the numerous cameras set up around city hall.

"Good afternoon people of the world, as you already know, I am Vlad Masters, but many of you apparently know me as the man who held the world hostage." Adjusting his tie, Vlad changed from a neutral expression to the wicked grin that Danny remembered.

"Oh no," Dani said as Vlad Masters stepped down and invited Vlad Plasmius to take the stand, "this isn't good."

"Oh no, don't turn the camera's away," Plasmius said, soaking in the shocked faces of the audience, especially Jack and Madeline Fenton, "you can't even imagine what happens next. Ah, and let me just say…you were right. I held the planet Earth for ransom, thinking that you would all just go along with it if I saved your miserable lives, but that was wrong of me. I forgot that you always have these so called 'heroes' looking out for you in your time of need, so that even when I or others like me fail, they'll be there making sure everything ends up safe and pretty for you… ants."

Vlad reached for Danny and Dani, somehow still somehow immune to the blood blossom restraints that had rendered the two powerless. "These two-"

"You get your filthy ghost hands off of my kids, punk!" Jake Fenton yelled from the crowd, shouldering a smoking ecto-blaster and standing beside his wife and oldest daughter.

Deflecting the shot with ease, Vlad turned on Jack and sent him tumbling through the crowd with a nonchalant ghost ray.

His family screaming for him, Jack crumbled against the Fenton RV, scorch-marks and rips covering his jumpsuit. Maddie ran towards her husband crying as Vlad laughed victoriously from the stage.

"I'll kill you!" Danny, Dani, Jazz, and Maddie screamed at the same time. "You're dead, Plasmius!"

"Now while that was _entirely_ enjoyable, I believe I was introducing you to our guests of honor. You already know these two; Danny Phantom , the half ghost savior of the world and _Dani_ Phantom, a clone who has been nothing but a disappointment since day one." Making eye contact with Dani, Vlad smiled and slapped her across the cheek. "Daddy's little girl."

Turning back to his petrified audience, Vlad Plasmius called his human half onto the stage to collect the two, ignoring the fear that had begun to form in Vlad Masters' eyes. "But you aren't here for familiar faces, are you? You're here because you people wanted a show of me, correct? You wanted to see ol' Vladdy at his lowest," Baring his teeth, Vlad grabbed Jake and Randy and pulled them onto the stage, centering them in front of the speaker's podium, "well here he is is."

Releasing Randy from his shackles, Vlad pulled him down to the lowest camera there. "See this camera Randall? A direct link to Norrisville, home to all your adoring fans tuning in on every station and every site," Bringing him back to center stage, Plasmius held Randy tight against him. "'But wait' you're no doubt asking, 'why would we in Norrisville be fans of Randy Cunningham?'" Pulling the ninja mask out of Randy's back pocket, Vlad turned to the camera with a wicked smile. "I'll show you why."

Despite his struggling and protesting, Randy Cunningham was unable to avoid what happened next, as in front of the entire world, he had his secret revealed.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the legendary Norrisvile Ninja…Randy Cunningham."

The crowd erupted with camera flashes and questions, but Vlad silence them all with a command.

"That's enough Plasmius, this ends, now!"

"Oh does it Daniel?" Vlad wagged his finger at Danny who was fighting against his restraints to no avail. "Have you forgotten our good friend from New York, Jacob Long?"

"You wouldn't…" Jake said, locking eyes with the madman and then smiling, "in fact, you couldn't, so hah!"

"Oh," Vlad said, pulling out a dagger made of red stone, "can't I, Jacob?"

"Oh no," Danny and Randy whispered, noticing that the closer the blade got to Jake's skin the more scales appeared in that area.

"Strange. You both say no, and yet here I am saying…" Vlad slashed the blade across Jake's cheek, causing mystical fire to erupt from the wound and consume his body, much to the frightened screams of the crowd, "…yes."

"Are you watching, people of the world? Do you see what fantastic secrets your heroes keep from you? I present to you..." Emerging from the fire a full bodied dragon still restrained by his mystic shackles, Jake looked down on the people to see every shocked face present (including the Fentons) and every camera locked on him, Randy and Danny. "the American Dragon everyone, Jake Long!"

* * *

"I ask you again, do you _see_ people," Vlad said, taking to the podium once again, "do you see how easily your heroes fall to me! No _ghosts_, nor _man_, not even _beasts_ can stand against me…so what hope do you have? The choice is yours," Plasmius continued as he grabbed the other Vlad by the neck, "be ruled by me and live like lesser men in subjectivity…"

Vlad pulled out the wicked dagger again and put it against his human half's throat, "or stand against me…" he said, yanking the knife back in a vicious motion that opened the neck of his counterpart. Cupping his hand over the wound to temporarily stop the bleeding, Vlad looked out at the crowd and laughed, removing his hand slowly and letting what was once himself collapse to the ground, lifeless. "And end up like poor Maxwell here."

Pausing to say good riddance to the dragon-creature he'd found all those month ago, Vlad drew a bloody triangle on his forehead and said a silent chant amidst the crowd's sea of screams. Laughing even wilder than before, Vlad kicked the double's body down the stairs into the mass of panicking people as his arms began glowing with faint golden magical symbols.

"How does it feel to be in the presence of a god?!" Vlad commanded, feeling his power surge as a storm began around him. This is what it truly meant to be victorious in every aspect of the word, to make a deal with a devil and still come out on top.

"Oh and Daniel…" Vlad said, sparing one last glimpse at the teenagers before launching them into various wormholes he had opened with his new abilities, "_I win._"


	7. Epilogue

Randy woke up in full ninja attire, dangling from the top of a massive pine tree. Still weak from Vlad's assault, he resigned himself to just hang there as he watched the sun sink beneath the branches. _"How did it all go so wrong," _he thought to himself, _"how did it all come to this?"_

Thinking back to the last memory he had, Randy remembered Vlad Plasmius revealing the secret of the ninja to the entire world before casting him and his friends through holes in the air. "Oh yeah," he said to no one in particular, "Vlad kicked our butts, revealed our secrets and then…"

Remembering the flash of a knife and then a man who looked like Vlad Masters bleeding out on stage, Randy shuddered, shaking the top of the tree. "Gotta get down from here." Swinging his body, he began his descent from the tree. "Ninja jump, ninja jump, ninja _flip_ andddd ninja…owww."

Landing carelessly, Randy stumbled and hit his head against a large totem pole that seemingly came out of nowhere. Rubbing his forehead, he walked towards the opening of a large clearing, looking for any sign of his friends.

"Jake! Danny! Anyone!"

Silence. He was alone.

"Oh man, this is not good." He said, removing his mask and starting to panic. "I need to find the others, they _have_ to be okay and we've got to get back to Amity Park and shut Vlad do-"

"Hiya stranger, having fun talking to yourself?"

Startled, Randy screamed and jumped back, tripping over an unseen log and landing hard on his back. Feeling disoriented, he was initially unsure if he was imagining the two kids standing over him or if they were actually there.

The boy, who wore a pine tree hat, looked over Randy, giving him a glance of a large book nuzzled into his vest. "Nice going Mabel, I think you gave the guy a concussion."

The girl, Mabel apparently, wore a large colorful sweater with a shooting star on it and ignored the boy as she reached her hand down to Randy. "He's fine, Dipper," she said, poking Randy on the nose and watching his eyes flutter, "see?"

"Ugh…Jake? Danny? Is that you?"

"Who?"

"Never-mind that," Dipper said, lifting Randy as much as he could, "help me get him up and into the shack, the last thing we need is another dead body around here like that big lizard we found."

"Bi-bi-big lizard…" Randy said, snapping into focus and standing up straight before grabbing Dipper by the shirt. "Take me to it, now!"

"Ah, okay man!" The boy yelled, protecting his face, "Geez, we'll show you, we'll show you! Just put me down!"

"Yeah," Mabel cheered, "just follow the mystery twins!"

Regaining himself, Randy put Dipper down and apologized for his outburst. "Uh, who?"

Dipper groaned, "She means us...we're the mystery twins."

"Alright then… let's go."

* * *

Following the twins deeper into the forest, Randy stopped as Dipper pointed to a section of the woods that looked like it'd been struck by a meteor, broken tree limbs and scorched ground leading into a sunken patch of earth.

"Okay Randy, here's where we found…" Dipper paused, shocked to see that the large red creature that had been there before had now been replaced by what appeared to be a teenaged boy. "…that guy, apparently."

Ignoring the twins' confusion, Randy hopped into the crater and noticed the two bodies in the center. "Jake! Danny!" Relieved to see his friends, Randy went to hug them but was stopped by Jake pushing him away.

Removing his hand from Danny's stomach, Jake revealed a large gash going across his midsection, a disturbing mix of green and red fluids oozing onto the ground and covering their hands. Looking at his friends, Danny faintly smiled as the color began draining from his face. "Relax…" he told them, his eyes fluttering as they began trying to help him, "it still beats re-living phantom planet."


End file.
